2005 F-150. First car(truck)puter.

Tical84 · 10-16-2009, 12:58 AM

Well most of my hardware is on its way and my custom skin is pretty well done as well, just a few more kinks in that so I figure I would begin my worklog.

Here's the hardware (so far):

JetWay JNC62K-LF AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 HDMI Mini-ITX
AMD Athlon 64 1640 2.7GHz 45w
2GB Mushkin 800 MHz DDR2 PC-6400 SDRAM (Maybe only 1GB to help with boot time)
Sound Blaster 2 Audigy ZS Platinum
Sirius SC-C1 with Mitch's adapter
Custom built case

To get:

HDD, probably SSD because of the extreme weather conditions here (-30C-+40C)
Touchscreen
USB GPS (BU-353?)
Slot load DVD
PSU
Maybe a card reader of some kind. This would be cool, but more than what I need

Software:

RR with custom skin

sneak peak:

And here's my first piece of hardware, custom volume knob based off of a hacked mouse and volumouse.

Sorry about the blurry pic.

Let me know what you think!

hexxamillion · 10-16-2009, 06:42 AM

Nice start. Keep the pics comin'

tbird2340 · 10-16-2009, 09:03 AM

Nice knob! What was there before?

Tical84 · 10-16-2009, 11:21 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by tbird2340

Nice knob! What was there before?

A completely useless coin holder. First corner and your coins are everywhere. On the models with electronic 4x4 it's the shifter, and they needed to fill the gap with something so that's what they decided on. I have a manual 4x4 shifter. The best part is the wires that would normally go to the electronic shifter are still connected to the back of the coin holder.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to use that knob or another one that I have. I'll take pictures when I get home and let you guys decide.

tbird2340 · 10-16-2009, 11:25 AM

So is the knob physically connected to the PCB some how? I know when I did mine (which is now gone) I had to run a rod that actually went from the knob (which was my cig lighter) to the mouse.. So when I turned the lighter knob it then turned the mouse wheel..

Tical84 · 10-16-2009, 11:33 AM

Yes, I forgot to take pics of the completed assembly but if you look at the last pic there is a brass rod (actually square). That went into the mouse wheel and the knob attached to that.

Tical84 · 10-17-2009, 12:35 AM

This is more of what the inside looks like:

And these are my knob options:

hexxamillion · 10-17-2009, 02:12 AM

Nice work. I wish I was thinking about CarPC's back in 1998 when I had my T-100 w/Deluxe Cab.

Tical84 · 10-29-2009, 12:48 AM

Today was a very up and down day as far as the truckputer goes.

I picked up my mobo, RAM and CPU today from the post office

As soon as I opened the mobo I couldn't tell something didn't look right. I picked it up and saw this:

The motherboard was clearly opened already.

Then I put everything together.

Only to find out the thing doesn't even post.

Moral of the story? Don't buy anything from pogostick00 off eBay. She doesn't reply to emails until you make a PayPal claim, even then she didn't reply until 1 minute after I could have escalate it (PayPal makes you wait 36 or so hours before you can escalate). Then she says she was out of town but her spouse sent it. He didn't send it until the 15th, I payed for it on the 7th. If he was going to send it when she was gone anyways, why didn't he send it on the 8th, 9th or even Monday the 12th? She tried to say she upgraded the shipping so I would get it sooner but she still sent it the slowest method possible (Priority, 6-10 days). Now that I finally have it I find out that the motherboard was (most likely) opened and doesn't work. Beautiful.

EDIT: I got it to post. It was totally my fault and now it doesn't detect the HDD. I'm sure I can figure that one out though. Don't think it's motherboard issue. Just got to poke around the BIOS I'm sure.

Tical84 · 10-29-2009, 09:52 PM

Found out what the problem with the HDD is. The IDE cable that shipped with the motherboard doesn't work. I tried my old IDE and everything's fine.
Now that I actually have a functioning computer, what do you guys think? Format XP or try 7?

hexxamillion · 10-29-2009, 11:15 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Tical84

Found out what the problem with the HDD is. The IDE cable that shipped with the motherboard doesn't work. I tried my old IDE and everything's fine.
Now that I actually have a functioning computer, what do you guys think? Format XP or try 7?

I would go with Windows 7. While I had no issues with XP...so far I am finding Windows 7 to be great and installs under 10GB. So why not install new O/S with your new system.

hexxamillion · 10-29-2009, 11:16 PM

In addition...if you plan on using any bluetooth technologies, I also found these tasks to be smoother with Windows 7 over XP.

You can get Windows 7 OEM at Tiger Direct. You may be able to find cheaper with some googling.

Tical84 · 10-29-2009, 11:58 PM

Which version do you recommend? I want the least bloated version out there but I hear Windows 7 Starter is a joke and doesn't really do anything. Should I get Home Premium or just go right for Ultimate and not worry about it?

hexxamillion · 10-30-2009, 12:34 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Tical84

Which version do you recommend? I want the least bloated version out there but I hear Windows 7 Starter is a joke and doesn't really do anything. Should I get Home Premium or just go right for Ultimate and not worry about it?

Personally I have Ultimate and have been very happy with it so far.

hexxamillion · 10-30-2009, 12:41 AM

That's one of the things I don't like about Windows. Why not just make the one product then have the consumers choose what they want to during installation process, like what is done on LINUX. Then there would be no confusion..it could be as bloated as you want or as lightweight.

In any case, regarding the topic at hand once again I have the Ultimate and from my understanding is suppose to have more to offer on the OS when compared to the other versions.

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